The resource exergy conversion in Chinese society in 1993 under the material product system (MPS) was investigated. Major resources that entered the society were divided into subgroups and analyzed in detail. The end use was broken down into ten end-use sectors: the forestry industry, food industry, iron and steel industry, nonferrous metal industry, chemical industry, textile industry, transportation, households, commerce, other industry. The total exergy input was 62.9 EJ, which was 53.3 GJ/cap. The total exergy output contained 11.66 EJ or 9.88 GJ/cap, which was 19% of the total exergy input. One RMB (Chinese Renminbi) yuan ($ 0.17) corresponded to 3.37 MJ resource exergy output. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.